


you are the coffin

by windpipe



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: DannyMay (Danny Phantom), DannyMay 2020, Gen, Learning to trust, Obsessions, canon divergency, enemies to kind-of friends, errybody got trust issues, headcanons galore, not a revelation fic sry folx, originally written in 2018 but i tweaked it to fill the dannymay prompt;;
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:53:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24434644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windpipe/pseuds/windpipe
Summary: for dannymay 2020.day 8: lost.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Maddie Fenton
Comments: 8
Kudos: 122





	you are the coffin

_ Pop! - Sizzle! - Crack! _

The explosion is enough to tip Danny’s world into slow-mo - the impact resonating through his skull and doing enough damage to rupture his eardrum. The halfa jerks his head, violently, as if to rid himself of the ringing in his ears. His senses are kicked into overdrive, and adrenaline-infused ectoplasm has started pumping through his veins hard enough to make him shake. He’s pushing out of the crater he’s made in the brick wall just as fast as he was thrown into it, tumbling ungracefully through the air until he gains enough momentum to tell up from down again.

Beside him, a familiar voice cuts through the air:  _ “Phantom!” _

Danny dips, swerves, and swoops as fast as he can, having come to anticipate the volley of crazed ectoblasts that tends to punctuate his mother’s paranormally-provoked exclamations. They sear - hot and dangerous - into the open sky before dying out, energy lost.

“Give a guy a break, will you?” Danny gripes, zipping away before another barrage of ectoblasts light up the pocket of air he previously occupied.

“A  _ break?” _ Maddie’s saying through clenched teeth, “You’re one to talk!”

Before Danny can catch his breath, another series of shots light up the Amity Park twilight - this time, catching him square in the chest. He soars backwards - propelled by the hit - before colliding with another wall and dropping to the ground like a fly. Asphalt snags under him from the collision, the more jagged pieces debris sinking far enough into his skin to draw ectoplasm. The substance’s bioluminescence washes the grim scene in a sickly glow.

Danny sucks in a breath as the cool barrel of his mother’s ectoblaster digs into his jugular. He tries to play it off cool. “Heh, uh - what about a compromise?” He flashes the best smile he can muster.

Maddie stamps down on his femur -  _ hard. _

“What about,” she parrots, “you give up?”

The question is punctuated by a whirring that makes Danny’s stomach drop: Fisted in her other hand, Maddie totes a Fenton Thermos. The uncapped tube glows, awaiting Maddie’s final decision. As if he’s been dunked into ice-water, Danny feels every muscle in his body freeze.

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” he warns.

Maddie evens him with a look, digging her heel deeper into the flesh of his thigh. “I think I know what I’m doing a little better than you do.” She counters, thumb snaking up the side of the thermos.

In half a second, the switch is flipped, and Danny’s protests die on the tip of his tongue. A blinding white beam bends from the mouth of the canister.

Danny wheezes against the gun at his throat, his prolonged moments of freedom giving him enough common sense to choke out a  _ “Wrong direction!” _ before he and Maddie are both knocked away from the wall. The thermos drops to the ground with a metallic  _ clang!  _ \- though either are too preoccupied to notice.

Danny clenches his teeth tight against the cold that floods his lungs and leaks out in a chilled, visible exhale.

The light gutters out to reveal a towering silhouette in the thermos’s place. The figure blinks - its molten gold eyes the only distinguishable feature in the dim lighting - and squints, taking a moment to catalog its surroundings. Its pale, aureate orbs fixate on Maddie - who fights to get to her feet before Phantom - and the creature lets loose a deep, grumbling laugh.

“What did you do?!” Maddie demands, ectoblaster at the ready.

_ “Me?!” _ Danny replies, incredulous. “That was  _ all _ you!”

It’s the most they can stand to bicker, as the spook swipes an enormous claw toward them. Despite the white-hot pain that shoots up his thigh, Danny’s fast on his feet, barrelling towards Maddie and turning their pair intangible in the blink of an eye. The foe wails, outraged, and makes for another jab.

Maddie shakes her arm free of Danny’s touch. “Let - go - !”

“I’m  _ helping _ you!” Danny tries to say, but their struggle is just enough of a window of opportunity for the ghost to catch them in a blow.

Maddie lets out an ear-piercing shriek as the strike, rather than slicing through them, sinks seamlessly through their abdomens and, like thread through a cosmic needle, pulls them through the bindings of the universe - spitting them out on the other side of timespace.

They tumble gracelessly from the sky, which has washed green with the breaking dawn. Unable to regain his bearings fast enough to fly the pair to safety, Danny breaks their fall with a series of limbs. Something cracks, and Danny prays it’s the bramble he was hurled against, and not his spine.

When the dust settles, Danny groans.

Maddie, impossibly, hops to her feet first - drawing her ectoblaster faster than Danny can recover. He blinks at the steaming barrel pressed to his chest.

_ “What. Did. You. Do?!” _ Maddie grits out, again, enraged. Danny, finally coming to his bearings, has only a seconds to recognize the sky isn’t green from the sunrise - it’s green because  _ they’re in the Ghost Zone _ \- before his mom shoves the gun into his chest again, forcefully.

It’s a mistake, though; unlike Danny, the ectoplasmic aura of the Ghost Zone hasn’t been healing the damage she’s taken from the fall. Her ankle rolls, clearly sprained, as she shifts her weight - and she hisses through her teeth. Danny winces, sympathetically.

“C-come on,” he insists, hating the way he stutters (but it was hard not to when  _ Mom _ has you at gunpoint). “We’re in no position to be fighting right now when that  _ thing _ \- ”

“That  _ thing! _ That thing was a part of your plan!” Maddie shouts, furious. Danny cringes at the way her voice rises several octaves.

Finally finding his footing, he scrambles to defend himself. “N-no! You’ve got it all wrong!” His wounds had, for the most part, mended - sure enough, he’s steady on his feet despite the bruised femur mere moments ago. “I told you back there! You set the thermos to  **_‘release’_ ** instead of  **_‘capture’,_ ** and - ”

“You think I don’t know how my own invention works?” Maddie seethes, but Danny can see her anger flicker as she considers the possibility - that she maybe,  _ possibly _ flicked the switch the  _ wrong _ way…

Danny doesn’t waver. “You saw the beam! The bright white light! Think about it, please.” He implores. “If it were me, it would’ve had a- an ectoplasmic signature, or something. I was trying to protect you!”

Maddie scowls, not wanting to admit that he… may be right. When the other haunt appeared, it hadn’t been like any of Phantom’s attacks - which, she hates to concede, all have a very distinct, green aura.

She lowers her gun. Danny’s brows crinkle, but before he can begin to smile, Maddie bites: “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Phantom. The only reason I haven’t blasted you to pieces is because I…” Her voice trails off as she glances around them. In all directions, trees like shadows and alien foliage stretch on as far as the eye can see. She finds her voice again, “I’m a little lost.”

Danny heaves a sigh, ignoring his mother’s empty threat. Maddie is a smart woman - she knows better than to eliminate her only way back. “Well, that makes two of us.”

Maddie forks an eyebrow. “So you really… don’t know anything about the ghost?”  _ ‘That I released,’ _ remains unspoken.

“Uh, I, well… no.” Danny huffs, carding a hand through his ivory mop. “Honestly, when it swiped us, I thought we were both dead.” He freezes after he says it, realizing his slip of tongue all too late.

“You’re already dead.” Maddie retorts, suspiciously.

Danny feels his face grow hot, a bioluminescent green dusting his cheeks. Maddie makes a mental note of the reaction - do ghosts normally blush so  _ obviously? _ “Double dead,” he jests, feigning a laugh. His mother doesn’t indulge him, a frown settling beneath the transparent plastic of her rebreather. Danny hadn’t noticed it before, but she must’ve slung it on before she got up from their impact: It’s a sleek Fentonworks model - much smaller than the ones divers use, and much more handy for human trips into the GZ. Just like his parents to be prepared for anything.

_ (Danny tries not to imagine what would’ve happened if she  _ **_hadn’t_ ** _ brought one.) _

Maddie surveys the area one last time before trudging onwards. Her ankle gives out every few steps, so she favors the opposite leg, walking with a limp to keep the weight off of it.

Danny floats after her. “You seriously shouldn’t be on your feet right now. Are you sure you don’t want me to carry you, or - ”

“Carry me?” Maddie scoffs, interrupting the haunt. “There’d be no greater insult.” Her tone is uncharacteristically dark.

Danny casts his gaze to the sky, a little hopelessly.  _ So, that’s a no on flying out of here - at least for now,  _ Danny thinks to himself. But with flying off the table, what are they to do? The woods appear to be endless, not to mention, Danny has no way of telling where they are. Not here, on the ground, anyway.

Eventually, he catches up to where Maddie charges brazenly ahead. He needs to come up with a plan, and quickly; otherwise, there’s no telling what could happen to them, or Amity, if the ghost that sent them here was still on the loose. He opens his mouth to start a conversation - about  _ what, _ he isn’t entirely sure, yet - but the words dissolve on his tongue as Maddie breaks their uncomfortable silence.

“So, how  _ did _ you die?”

Danny splutters, taken aback by her blunt icebreaker. Maddie narrows her eyes behind her goggles at the expression.  _ “What?” _ She demands, prompting a nervous laugh from the halfa.

Danny raises his hands, as if to placate her. “Nothing, nothing,” he stammers, as inoffensively as possible. He’s not particularly ready to revisit the barrel of his mom’s ectoblaster. “It’s just, ah… a little personal to ask a guy, I guess.” He shrugs, ducking his head away. Maddie thinks she catches the same green blush crawling up his neck again. 

She seems to mull this information over for a moment. “Personal?” She echoes, after a heartbeat.

Danny returns to the ground, a few steps ahead - taking his turn leading their march through the dense, woodsy overgrowth. He half-expects a,  _ “ghosts are non-sentient and therefore cannot grasp the concept of personal boundaries,” _ spiel to accompany the word, and is surprised when only silence follows.

“It’s just not usually the first thing you ask someone.” He clarifies, after a second.

Maddie hums quietly. “I’d never looked at it that way.”

Danny pauses to turn around. In the Ghost Zone’s viridescent wash, Maddie’s hair mimics the strange forest foliage - dark and askew. She has a contemplative look on her face - one Danny had yet to observe in ghost form.

Until now.

They share a look for only a handful of seconds, but it’s enough for Danny’s face to grow hot and uncomfortable. He quickly drops his gaze and trudges on, batting away leaves and branches when necessary.

Danny clears his throat in an attempt to re-find his voice. “Electricity,” he says, the word thick and heavy in the woodland white noise.

“Excuse me?”

Danny elaborates, “I was electrocuted.” He makes sure his steps do not falter.

Maddie’s pace slows slightly. “Oh,” she says, softer than before. A pause. “You remember it?”

Danny closes his eyes. He doesn’t want to, but… if he dwells on it long enough, he can still feel the arcs of lightning crawling under his skin, can still smell the acrid odor of singed flesh and fried hair, can still see afterimages of static scorched across his retinas… 

“I… yeah.” He nods, throat tight. He hopes she might take the hint and drop it.

Maddie, however, is persistent. Danny comforts himself with the belief she’s more interested in the scientific implications of their discussion than the intimate value it would’ve had with anyone else. Still, his gut turns uneasily; it’s the closest he’s come to confessing his death to his mom.

“Do all ghosts remember what it’s like to die?” Danny can practically see the gears turning when their eyes meet - though he can’t blame his mother. Prior to the portal incident, the afterlife mystified Danny, as well.

“Uh…” His mouth corkscrews into a frown. “I’m not entirely sure - it’s not something I’ve really gone out of my way to ask.” The halfa trails, entertaining the thought of pressing Skulker during one of their near-daily games of cat-and-mouse, and grimaces.  _ Not likely. _ “Though, I’d imagine they do.”

“And why’s that?”

Danny considers his mother’s words before responding. Up ahead, the trees begin to spread out, letting more of the twisting, emerald sky bleed through. Together, they march onwards - into the nothingness.

“You know about Obsessions.” He says, eventually. It comes out as more of an accusation than a question. When his eyes flick to her for confirmation, Maddie sets her jaw. “I think if… if they didn’t remember their lives from before, there’d be nothing to remind them of what went unfinished while they were alive.”

Maddie makes a noise of understanding. “There’d be nothing for a ghost to Obsess over without its living memories.”

“Right, exactly,” Danny nods. “The way I see it, if they can remember what they feel they left unfinished, why wouldn’t they remember the event that left their living responsibilities unfulfilled?”

Maddie keeps her silence, a thoughtful expression painted on her face. It’s the most complacent she’s been since they found themselves in their situation. Danny narrows his eyes. “You’re awfully quiet,” he points out, skeptically, “and awfully less bothered by my commentary - what gives?”

The rubbery material of her hazmat suit protests when she crosses her arms over her chest. “Awfully less bothered, or awfully good at knowing when to hold my tongue?” She snaps back, defensively; though, she quickly deflates when Danny raises a critical eyebrow in her direction.

“There’s a lot my partner and I still don’t know,” Maddie concedes, quietly, “about the Ghost Zone, about ghosts - and about the paranormal, in general.” She continues, “Being trapped here so easily - and realizing I have no choice but to rely on the enemy for my last chance of survival - only serves as a reminder of all the work we still have ahead of ourselves.”

Danny flounders for a moment: It’s always been difficult deciding what information to actually divulge to his parents, and what to say to keep them off his tail. On one hand, he cares for his parents’ passion a lot - and that same part of him can’t help but be weighed down by the guilty knowledge that  _ he’s _ contributed to their endless arsenal of ‘failed’ paranormal projects. On the other hand, there’s no telling  _ what _ could go wrong should Danny accidentally let too much slip. Would his parents still see him as human enough to be worth trusting, believing, and loving - or would Phantom’s reputation blind his parents’ judgement?

In the end, it’s still not a risk he’s willing to take. At the very least, not here, not when he knows they’ll make it out alive.

“You can’t expect to figure everything out.” Danny chooses to say. “Beating yourself up about what you don’t know only deters you from valuing the hard work you’ve already put in. You might not know everything about the GZ, but you still made the Portal.”

Maddie sighs. “For a moment, I was so desperate for comfort that I convinced myself you’re capable of empathy.” Frustrated, Danny fists his hands tightly enough for his nails to leave a series of half-moon impressions in the fabric of his hazmat suit, and tells himself it’s cathartic. His mother’s violet eyes fix themselves on him. “You wouldn’t understand, Phantom; this  _ is _ my unfinished business.”

Maddie shoves forward, ever vigilant, leaving Danny to soak in her words. He considers, for a moment, that perhaps Obsessions aren’t unique to the afterlife: Perhaps it’s just the nature of humans to let circumstantially nobler pursuits distract from the smaller, sometimes more precious details they’ll regret dismissing.

“A clearing!” Danny’s shaken from his thoughts by Maddie’s exclamation. He startles, looking ahead to notice the foliage has significantly dwindled. Up further, he can spy a break in the trees.

Absentmindedly, Danny’s legs melt together and he zips towards Maddie’s location - having slowed down in thought. His feet press into a field of strange, glowing flowers. “A meadow?” He asks.

Maddie walks along the clearing, peering past the perimeter of trees for any signs to an end of the forest. With plummeting hope for a human-accessible escape, Danny takes to the sky, shooting high above the treetops to get a bird’s-eye view.

Surely enough, the enchanted forest stretches on for several more miles. Glancing back, it’s impossible to tell where they were spat into the Ghost Zone, and impossible to tell what trail they trekked to get to their current position. There’s no predicting where the end to the forest lies - or if it even has a safe route from the GZ back to the Fenton Portal.

Danny coasts down. He watches Maddie make a third round about the meager meadow before she grunts and crosses her arms.

“There’s no sign of a way out anywhere.” Maddie settles. “We’ll have to keep walking.”

“Keep  _ walking?” _ Danny repeats, incredulous. “This thing goes on for miles! It’s a labyrinth!”

Maddie’s eyes glint in the low forest lighting. “Don’t make me repeat myself, Phantom.”

Danny narrows his eyes. He  _ needs _ her trust; he won’t be able to forgive himself if they stay trapped within uncharted GZ territory for more than a handful of hours. Even  _ he _ knows he has his limits; he can’t protect his mom from everything - especially an extremely powerful, dimension-hopping ghost he’s never dealt with before.

Danny shudders at the reminder. They still have no idea where their enemy is.

_ All the more reason to get the hell out of here,  _ Danny reasons with himself.

“Look,” Danny says - slowly, certainly. “I know you don’t trust me, but we  _ need _ to get out of here. That…  _ thing _ is still out there, whatever it is. We don’t know how many people it may have tossed in here in addition to us.”

Maddie’s anger slowly begins to fizzle. She slows, because for a fraction of a moment, he sounded… well, scared. Maddie shakes her head. Certainly she just heard him wrong. “If I’d wanted to kill you, or - or whatever you think ghosts do, don’t you think I would’ve done it by now? You might be armed, but even you have to admit  _ I _ have the advantage here.” Danny’s eyes flash, predatorily, to emphasize his point. “I get you don’t want me in your home, but at least let me fly you back to the Portal, before we’re cornered into a fight we can’t get out of.”

Maddie sets her jaw, expression unreadable. “...How far are we from Amity?”

Danny perks up at her shrinking opposition. “You’re really going to let me take you home?”

_ “Don’t _ push it, Phantom.” She bites, jabbing a finger at the halfa’s chest. “How far are we from Amity?”

Danny deflates. “Still impossible to tell,” he admits. “I’ve never been this deep in the GZ - and from our current,  _ limited  _ \- ” (Maddie scowls.) “ - vantage point, there’s no telling how long it may take to get back.”

Maddie glowers. “And, what? You’re expecting me to  _ trust _ you to get me back, safe and sound?” She mocks.

“It’s a better solution than  _ wandering aimlessly,” _ Danny snaps. Frustrated, he sighs, sliding down the base of a large tree and dragging a hand through his sickly white hair.

“You said it yourself, earlier. Without me, you won’t be able to make it back. So,  _ please.” _ he eventually says, liquid green eyes pleading with hers.

Maddie… can’t wrap her head around Phantom. The malevolent ghost boy that she and her husband call an enemy seems so far from the (Maddie refuses to say “benign”)  _ nonviolent _ teenager sitting beside her. Her rational mind screams that this must be a trap; the emotions, the transparency, the theatrics.  _ It has to be.  _ After all, why would Danny Phantom, Amity’s resident haunt, be trying to help a  _ ghost-hunter? _

Ghosts  _ always _ have a motive. Maddie knows this to be true, and yet… her gut instinct tells her to trust him - not entirely, but long enough to make it out of this situation. She considers her options. Escaping the Zone on her own is highly unlikely. Her options quickly dwindle.

It takes her a moment, but she finally gives in. “I’m… injured. And my rebreather only has so long before the oxygen runs out.” Maddie fidgets with the hem of her glove, restlessly. “It goes against everything I stand for and yet…” she wilts, “...and yet, there’s no way I can get out of this on my own, as much I hate to say it.” She groans. “Just promise me we’ll have a truce until we make it back to Amity.” Her face twists, like she doesn’t agree with her own words.

Danny places a gloved hand over his chest, eyes twinkling with amusement. “I swear it -  _ on my life.” _ His mom’s eyes narrow behind her goggles, unappreciative of his inability to act serious for more than five minutes.

“A ghost’s word is worth nothing to me.” She says, sticking her nose in the air. “...But I have to trust you, just this once.”

_ That’s probably the most I could hope for, _ Danny thinks, righting himself from the tree. Instead, he says: “Are you ready?”

Maddie gives him a hard once-over. Her expression falters. “I don’t have a choice, do I?”

Danny shakes his head, taking a couple steps forward. Hesitantly, he places his hands around Maddie’s. He’s surprised when she doesn’t bat away the touch. “Please, let me protect you.” He assures her, quietly. “I just want to make sure you make it home alive.” His words seem earnest enough, he hopes. He lets his hands drop back to his sides.

Something clicks behind Maddie’s eyes, and her face changes. “Protect me…” she trails. “You said that earlier.”

Danny’s brows knit, confused. “Yeah, and…?”

“And nothing.” Maddie returns, secretively. While Danny stews in confusion, she settles her hands on her hips. “Well, we don’t have time to waste, Phantom. If that thing is still loose in the city, we need to go after it.”

_ We. _ Danny wonders if she meant to say that. Of course, she could’ve always meant his dad. He sighs, deciding to pay it no mind. His mom’s moodswings were beginning to give him whiplash.

“Let me know if I’m hurting you.” He says, looping his arms around her shoulders like a bulky, spectral jetpack. He tries to be mindful of where she broke her fall earlier, easily levering the two into the air and ascending upward.

The clearing became smaller and smaller, until they were high enough to see the ends of the forest: lush thickets that cascade into the malachite abyss. As they climb higher, it becomes apparent that the woods are anchored to a crumbling cliff, drifting in the seemingly endless void of the Ghost Zone. The reality begins to set in, that Maddie truly wouldn’t have been able to return home without Phantom’s help. It turns her stomach.

Although, she concedes, for as much as she’s lost in this battle (her ankle, the Fenton Thermos Mark II, and her sanity, for starters), she’s made up for in needling information out of Phantom. Assuming he sticks to his promise and delivers her home, she has a heap of new research data to start in on. Entertaining the spook for as long as it’s been has been extremely educational; a million new theories about Obsessions and memory post mortem are drumming away at her skull. Not only that, but she has enough questions about Phantom to fill a book. His complex mimicry of human emotions and behaviors are… almost unnerving. It makes the scientist in her itch.

He’s resolutely quiet as they float through the Ghost Zone. Not his top speed by any means, Maddie notes, but she figures he’s trying to assess their location. Fascinating.

Danny keeps his mouth shut, mainly to keep Maddie’s ectoblaster away for (what he hopes to be) the rest of the flight. The last thing he wants is to be hurtled through the air like a ragdoll again, if things run sour and Maddie decides to put a hole through his gut.  _ Hey, _ so what if he outpowers her - those blasters still pack a  _ punch! _ (One good shot and things could go very,  _ very  _ wrong.)

Danny’s eyes flick to her every once in a while, whenever her gaze strays (it doesn’t happen often). He can practically feel her goggle-glare boring into him, no doubt cataloging a hundred insignificant things that Danny absolutely does _not_ want to know about. But, at the same time, he also can’t help but notice how astonishingly… _human,_ his mom looks - defenseless and dangling at Danny’s mercy. Suddenly, she seems so incredibly small in his hands. It hasn’t crossed his mind until now, as he glances down at her swollen ankle, that certainly - somewhere in his lies of Fenton and Phantom and all that he isn’t - he is doing something right. _Keeping the truth from them is protecting them,_ he concludes. If his mom were to ever connect his two halves… 

“So, do ghosts remember all of their lives, from before?”

Phantom looks down at her, their eyes meeting. In the belly of the Ghost Zone, the emerald ectoplasm enhances the eerie green glow of his eyes. It makes Maddie’s hair stand on end.

When he speaks, he’s only slightly distracted. “All of their lives?” Danny repeats, scanning their surroundings. Unhinged doors, broken rocks, and fragmented structures pass by, all the color of dark, glittering jewels. He’s thankful to recognize a few landmarks as they coast deeper. “Well, again, I dunno if it goes for everyone else - but for me, yeah. I do.”

His mother blinks like she wasn’t expecting that answer. Going into uncharted waters, Danny hesitantly continues, “I remember things not always being… like this. I remember playing at the park with my sister as kids; watching the stars with my mom; going to Astro Camp with my friends.” He smiles, and Maddie thinks it looks bittersweet - not the way an unfeeling, malevolent spirit would look. Something sad pulls in her chest at the glaring realization that Phantom’s still just a  _ kid. _ A ghost, but also a kid who died too early. She blames the mother in her for being so won-over by his ability to play to her emotions.

“You died young.” She says, too softly for her own liking. A voice in the back of her head desperately tries to remind her ghosts don’t feel -  _ shouldn’t _ feel. They’re a residual imprint of energy, something born between life and death.  _ His thoughts, his behaviors, his feelings - they’re all echoes of a life that is long gone, _ a part of her insists.

He makes a face, wrinkles his nose - the expression her son Danny always makes whenever he doesn’t want to talk about something. “Eh,” he says, not denying it.

She watches his expression carefully. “So, is that why you’ve chosen Amity Park to be your haunt? You have - ” she struggles to say it, “ - memories, there? Friends… family?”

Danny swallows. His throat has run dry.  _ She’s getting a little too close to the truth. _

“S-something like that,” he stutters out. He quickly amends, “Amity is just a place worth protecting.”

Maddie’s eyes light up again, and Danny frowns. Was it something he said?

“I think I’ve finally figured you out, Phantom.” Maddie suddenly asserts, her change in demeanor throwing Danny through another loop. In his gut, something nasty twists: anxiety.

_ Figured me out? _ Danny recoils, attempting to remember everything he’s let loose since they were dumped in the GZ. Surely he didn’t give away enough for his mom to catch on, right?! It’s probably just his imagination, but the soft, human warmth of his mother’s body beneath him begins to feel like it’s searing its way through his hypothermic skin.

Noticing his shock, she elaborates, a little more loftily, “I don’t know why I didn’t piece it together sooner.” A smirk plays at the corners of her lips, like the cat who caught the canary. Danny fights to keep the contents of his stomach down. “But talking with you, now… it’s so obvious - your Obsession!”

Danny’s brows furrow. That is…  _ not _ where Danny thought this conversation would go, at all. Obsessions were… personal, like death. Intimate knowledge.

Not the type of knowledge you want your alter-ego ghost-half’s enemy to have. As it is, he’s probably given away too much just telling her how he died. His eyes harden, but his voice has its casual lilt to it. “Heh, can’t leave well enough alone, huh? If you dissect all my secrets right now, we’ll run out of plot material!”

Either the joke flies over Maddie’s head, or she doesn’t find it funny, because her expression remains cold, calculating. Subconsciously, Danny picks up speed; it’s easier now that he 100% recognizes where they are, and even more so now that his mom is getting  _ too _ nosy.

“What do you think you know about that?” His voice is more distanced, chilled. Maddie notices the edge, and the tiny voice in the back of her head celebrates. Kid or not, a ghost is still a ghost. She had known it was only a matter of time before his façade would start crumbling. 

_ If Obsessions are the root of all ghostly malintent, then what better way to crack his heroic guise?,  _ Maddie resolves.

“For - well,  _ all this time,  _ actually - we were confused. Lesser ghosts have blatantly obvious Obsessions. Boxes, lunchmeat, cheese - that kind of thing. But  _ you.” _ In her lilac eyes, there’s a look of… awe? Not the kind a mother gives her son - no, much closer to the kind a biologist gives a frog they’re about to dissect. Is he… shaking? He desperately hopes she doesn’t notice (though how could she not notice, when she’s trying her hardest to notice  _ everything?). _ Danny’s mind races.

_ “You _ are different.” Danny winces - he could’ve done without the reminder. “Stronger. More powerful. More complex. We’ve questioned our research on Obsessions altogether, just because of you and your… anomaly.” Danny is definitely going to be sick. He focuses all of his energy on not puking on his mom, mid-flight (even if it would just disintegrate in the ectoplasmic aura of the Zone -  _ ghosts don’t eat human food, ghosts don’t throw up).  _ “Of course, it’s only dawning on me now that that just means your Obsession would be, in turn, equally as complex.”

Despite their brief discussion in the woods, Danny doesn’t like talking about  _ his _ Obsession - with anyone. That’s an understatement: it makes his skin crawl. Obsessions are something  _ ghosts  _ have. Everybody knows that - Jazz, Sam, Tucker, the kids at school. And though he has his own anecdotes and theories about Obsessions, the fact still remains that it’s  _ inhuman.  _ Just another reason Danny’s a  _ freak. _

Danny tries not to acknowledge it for that reason, and it’s for that reason that Danny still hasn’t told anyone about his Obsession. No one has caught on. Not Jazz, not Sam, not Tucker - not anyone.

_ Yet. _

Danny realizes she’s waiting for him to say something - to quip back at her, probably, like he always does. But it’s a bit hard to come up with witty banter when he feels seven feet out of his body. From his body language, she can tell she’s hit the nail on the head.

Danny considers tossing his mom into the abyss of the Ghost Zone, but knows that won’t go over well, so he sucks it up, no matter how awkward it gets.

“Well, Dr. Fenton?” He snarks, only a beat late. (If Maddie hears the waver in his voice, she doesn’t comment.) “What’s the prognosis?” It’s a weak, lame defense mechanism, and he knows it.

Maddie takes a deep breath, looking ahead into the haze of the Ghost Zone, but says nothing. Ahead, a beacon of hope: the hexagonal wormhole of the Fentonworks Portal hedges into view. Danny decides not to press, thankful the conversation and time between Phantom and his mother has an end in sight. He never thought he’d ever be  _ relieved  _ to see the stupid hunk of metal again. Even Maddie can’t fight down a smile.

“You kept your promise.” Danny is crossing the threshold of the Portal as she says this. She says it more to herself than anything; it’s what she’s been waiting for. When they cross through, Maddie makes quick work of her rebreather. When she splutters for fresh air, Danny is reluctantly thankful his lungs aren’t an essential body function - at least, as Phantom, anyway.

Danny rolls his eyes at the comment. “I told you, if I wanted to kill you, or whatever you think ghosts do, I would’ve done it already.” Maddie shoots him a glare, and Danny raises his palms placatingly before she can shoot anything else at him. He’s jumpy in the lab as Phantom, especially with his ghost-hunting mom around.

“Right. You just wanted to  _ protect _ me.”

Danny bristles - not only at the way she says the word, but also at the way his core  _ thrums _ with the tune of it. Maddie watches his reaction - the way his eyes glow  _ just _ a little greener, unnervingly - before saying, “Relax. Your secret is safe with me.”

He knits his eyebrows together, puzzled. A million questions crash together in the halfa’s head. Isn’t this supposed to be a ticking timebomb? Their truce was supposed to expire when they made it back to Amity - so why isn’t she blasting away at him, and why isn’t he high-tailing it out of Fentonworks before he falls into some kind of trap?

There’s a pause. “Why?” Danny eventually settles on asking.

_ So yeah, _ she knew;  _ Phantom’s Obsession is  _ **_protecting._ **

Maddie digs an icepack out from one of the industrial laboratory freezers. Danny absentmindedly notes she still carries her ectoblaster - not in her hands anymore, but in her thigh holster. “Being stuck in the Ghost Zone with you made me consider a few things. For one, why would a ghost even _ bother  _ helping me, a ghost-hunter?” Gingerly, she sets to icing her sprain. Her lack of hostility is getting  _ weird. _ “Like I mentioned earlier, there’s a lot my partner and I are still learning about - ” she gestures vaguely at the entire lab, “ - all of this. It’s our life’s work, and yet, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

“At first I thought it was a trap - but with no other options of leaving alive, I was forced to trust you. But then, after hearing you mention Obsessions… it got me thinking. You’re the most complex ghost we’ve encountered, so far - it would only make sense that your Obsession would be more complex than the others we know.

“And for as bad as those lesser ghosts are at hiding their Obsessions, you’re no better! You  _ literally _ told me, you need to  _ prote- ” _

_ “Stop _ throwing it around like that!” Danny interrupts. He doesn’t look… mad. If anything, Maddie thinks with intrigue, the kid looks  _ embarrassed _ \- the tips of his ears are still stained green from the first time she’d gotten a reaction out of him.

Maddie doesn’t mention how she’d tested her hypothesis by waiting for Phantom to fulfill his end of the deal: to get her home safely. With no benefit in it for him, if he genuinely brought her home, _protected_ - then Maddie’s logic is flawless, right?

But then… where does that leave _ her _ with  _ him? _ Could she really trust herself to be so disarmed in the lab…? Among the most powerful ghost they know…? Maddie blows out a frustrated breath, never looking away from Phantom for more than a few seconds. She knows Phantom has done wrong, still does wrong, will most likely do more wrong - but it’s become strikingly obvious to her that there are just as many things she doesn’t know about him, about  _ ghosts _ , too. It’s going against all her instincts trusting him to not attack - but he never does.

“So, what - you can say it, but nobody else can?” Maddie tries to banter, but her scientific interest bleeds through too much.

She doesn’t expect an honest answer. “It’s, ah - I say it more subconsciously than anything.” He blurts, scratching his cheek.

Maddie tries really hard not to think about how human he seems, sometimes. But in this moment, it’s undeniable. She opens her mouth to say more, but Phantom pins her with a serious look. “As much as I appreciate the, uh - civility? I gotta jet. That monster is still on the loose, and I can’t have it hurting anyone else.”

Maddie frowns at her icepack. “...It’s my fault that thing is out.” She concedes. “I should be the one to put a stop to it.”

Danny winces. “Uh,  _ no. _ You’re in no condition to fight right now.” He elaborates, gesturing to her ankle. He looks at her pointedly. “Let me handle this.”

She’s wearing that unreadable expression again. Danny holds a breath he doesn’t need. He’s asking her to trust him.

Could she? Maddie considers everything that’s happened in the past handful of hours. Knowing Phantom’s Obsession was to protect, what - Amity? Its people? - could she really put her faith in him to handle this one on his own?

She knows the answer. “Alright,” she says, eventually. She sets her jaw. It’s not  _ trust, _ per se - more like… scientific theory. Phantom is guaranteed to protect… whatever it is he thinks is worth protecting. She can bargain he’ll stick to his word, here.

Danny blinks, shocked - he didn’t think getting her approval would be so easy. He mentally reminds himself he’s  _ Phantom, _ not Danny. He has to remember to keep up the act - Phantom wouldn’t need to wait around for Mom’s approval.

He nods, stepping back into character, and salutes Maddie before taking off. He phases through the walls of the lab seamlessly, taking to the night sky. Darkness cloaks the city - the sole indication of time passed. On the horizon, Danny can sense the ectosignature of something strong and powerful - no doubt the ghost that started it all. It bubbles up, cool and misty, from his lungs.

He’s absolutely terrified - but also oddly invigorated. Thinking of his injured mom, his thoughts return where they’d been earlier: Surely, even in all of this mess, he’s doing  _ something _ right. The turn of events had been a plus. Danny knows he’s protecting the people he loves by fighting ghosts - and, hopefully, his mom is beginning to understand that, too.

He sets his eyes on the skyline, and presses on.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm also on [tumblr](http://boytroll.tumblr.com/)!


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